Match Total Exposure not working at all

[wilsonpix]

I have used this feature with no problem and now suddenly it isn't working at all.  All it does now is sync the exposure levels, not adjusting each image to match the total exposure.  I have closed and repoened LR and  it is still the same.  I am not getting an error message.

[Bob Somrak]

Since using Lr since version 2 I have only used this a couple times but 2015.12 seems to be working as it is supposed to.

[kentdesign]

I am using Mac OS 10.11.6 (El Capitan) and mine is working - just checked for you. Try just because ....quit the application, shut down restart, and launch Lightroom. It may be that something did not load properly? I usually try this when things go awry and more often it seems to solve some issues. I know it sounds elemental, still worth a try. Other than that, please send more details as to what you were in the process of doing  when it did not work!

[wilsonpix]

I'm on 2015.12 and I already tried a shutting down and restarting.  Made no difference, it is not working at all.  I was hoping someone would tell me that there is some setting I managed to foul.

[JP Hess]

I'm using CC 2015.12 on Windows 10, and I can confirm this anomaly. I tried using it the other day and thought it was just an oversight and  dismissed it. But in checking it today after reading your message, it isn't working. What operating system are you using?

[Bob Somrak]

To further test I tried this on several different HDR source photos and they match very well.  Using OS X      This must be a Windows only issue or maybe an intermittent problem.

[wilsonpix]

Incorrect.  I am on OSX

[Bob Somrak]

I'm using El Capitan as KENTDESIGN  is using and I can not get it to break.  Maybe it is an intermittent problem

[Rob_Cullen]

All it does now is sync the exposure levels,

To the best of my knowledge- this is all that this function has ever done!

It reads the exposure from the "Most selected" photo (the brightest border) and 'copies' that exposure to the "Lesser selected" photos.

It does not (as you might think)  adjust ALL the photos to 'average' them in exposure.

So an example-  one photo is correctly exposed (0EV) and another is under-exposed (-1EV)

If I select the correct 0EV photo first and the  -1EV photo next and Match- the -1EV is changed to 0EV.

In the words of Scott Kelby in Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers-

"It will evaluate the overall exposure from your 'most-selected' photo (your properly exposed photo) and use that to fix the underexposed photos"

(Admittedly the word "Total" is misleading as to the function of this menu item.)

[Bill Sprague]

I'm using CC 2015.12 on Windows 10.  I had forgot about this tool.  Curious, I tried it on a set of three images.  The master did not change but the other two did and by different amounts on the exposure slider.  One was -.33 and the other was -.06.

Strange that it works for some and not others.

[Rob_Cullen]

To clarify my words- "Match- the -1EV is changed to 0EV."

The photo metadata is not changed, only the Exposure slider is changed in the Develop Basic panel.

In a group of 3 (taken for HDR)   +2, 0, -2.  If I select the '0' image (most selected) and the others as 'secondary selected', the [Ctrl+Alt+Shft+M ]  will adjust the Exposure sliders of +2 and -2 to make them appear the same as '0'. Metadata does not change.

(Windows-10  CC2015.12  DNGs from NEF)

[kentdesign]

AH - I had misunderstood the question. I agree with wobertc - I do not think Lightroom is supposed to adjust all the individual images by -1 or whatever setting in the most selected image. Nice if it would though! I was only testing this on regular photos and not an HDR set and it does sync the settings at least on EL Cap Mac OS X!

[JP Hess]

I have never used this on HDR images, but have used it on panorama images in the past. It used to equalize the exposure for all of the images in a panorama so that they would blend nicely after the image was stitched. I won't go so far as to say the numbers matched or anything. I just know that following using the "matching" option the stitching would go nicely. It doesn't seem to do that now.

[Bob Somrak]

Visually seeing if the "images match" is not a good test.  You have to look at the exposure slider vs the EV of selected photos   (ISO,Aperature and Shutter Speed) and see if it is correct.  For me it works as it is supposed to.

[JP Hess]

For me, it seems to do nothing at the present time.

[Bob Somrak]

If the ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture are the same on ALL the photos it won't do anything as the EV is the same.

[JP Hess]

OK.

[DonH]

Rob - I revisited this old thread trying to better understand the Match Total Exposures function while I'm working on a bunch of aurora borealis photos I shot with different settings overnight.
Can you confirm that Match Total Exposures ONLY looks at the physical exposure settings of the photos (Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO) and then ONLY adjusts the exposure slider in Lightroom to achieve the same total EV value of exposure betwen photos.

And that it does NOT look at image content (pixels) at all.   It appears that many posts/videos on this topic imply that the function does something more like aligning total perceived brightness of a photo by evaluating content.  I'm not questioning what you said, just wanting to confirm that I understand it!

Thanks,

Don

[John R Ellis]

"Match Total Exposures ONLY looks at the physical exposure settings of the photos (Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO) and then ONLY adjusts the exposure slider in Lightroom to achieve the same total EV value of exposure betwen photos.

And that it does NOT look at image content (pixels) at all."

Your understanding is correct. Match Total Exposures looks only at the Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO recorded in the EXIF metadata.

[wilsonpix]

I'm on OSX Yosemite.